Hilary Westfield has always dreamed of being a pirate. But
the Very Nearly Honourable League of Pirates rejects Hilary's application
because she's a girl, and her father ships her off to Miss Pimm's Finishing
School for Delicate Ladies instead.

Expected to wear woollen dresses (petticoats not provided) and enthusiastically
throw herself into activities such as Viennese Waltzing for the Eager Novice,
Miss Pimm's is every bit as horrid as Hilary feared. However, a true pirate
never lets dire circumstances stand in her way, and after a mostly dreadful
first week, Hilary escapes and applies for a job with a freelance pirate known
as the Terror of the Southlands. He offers her a place on his misfit crew, on
one condition: she must find the famous treasure that's rumoured to contain
most of the kingdom's lost magic. Hilary soon finds herself caught up in a
dangerous quest, and on the run from her school governess and the most
villainous pirate on the high seas!

Hilary
Westfield has always dreamed of being a pirate. But the Very Nearly
Honourable League of Pirates rejects Hilary's application because she's a
girl, and her father ships her off to Miss Pimm's Finishing School for
Delicate Ladies instead.
Expected to wear woollen dresses (petticoats
not provided) and enthusiastically throw herself into activities such
as Viennese Waltzing for the Eager Novice, Miss Pimm's is every bit as
horrid as Hilary feared. However, a true pirate never lets dire
circumstances stand in her way, and after a mostly dreadful first week,
Hilary escapes and applies for a job with a freelance pirate known as
the Terror of the Southlands. He offers her a place on his misfit crew,
on one condition: she must find the famous treasure that's rumoured to
contain most of the kingdom's lost magic. Hilary soon finds herself
caught up in a dangerous quest, and on the run from her school governess
and the most villainous pirate on the high seas! - See more at:
http://books.simonandschuster.co.uk/Very-Nearly-Honourable-League-of-Pirates-Magic/Caroline-Carlson/9780857078278#sthash.Bdx1JCWX.dpuf

Nayuleska's thoughts

I
love adventures which involve pirates and girls, but so many a time the plot
heads in a direction I'm

not
fond of, or there's a character who disappoints me. The total opposite is true
for Hilary's adventure -

she
is awesome! Even when the outlook is bleak she never gives up. She proudly
fights for her dream, discovering new friends who made me smile and shocking
truths which made me glad I don't know where

Caroline
lives or I would be tempted to stage a sit in process on her doorstep to get
the next book in my

hands
immediately! And yes I may wave a crochet hook menacingly while I'm at it-mine
is bright purple

like
one of Hilary's disguises. Miss Primm would have words with me about that...I
truly loved the theme

of
friendship springing up constantly, it warmed my heart even when Claire and
Hilary were separated.

The
minor niggle I had was the style of script for the letters-it makes it a bit
hard to read if you're tired/ill but I
let that slide in the grading. Girl power is a formidable thing on land and
most definitely at sea!

It is with great excitement that I can present you with the short piece Caroline has written for NRC about planning stories!

I don’t think anyone will ever be able to
adequately explain where story ideas come from, but for me, they usually arrive
when I’m standing at the kitchen counter eating cereal out of the box and
letting my mind wander all over the place. As it wanders, it stumbles over a
strange or silly thought, and I sort of laugh to myself and say (with a mouth
full of cereal), “That would be a good idea for a story.”

Usually, it is not a good idea for a
story. Usually it turns out that I’m just standing in the kitchen talking to
myself like someone who really should not be left alone for long periods of
time. But sometimes my brain starts to tingle in a particular way, and I
abandon the cereal and run to my computer, where I open my file of story ideas.
This is a Word document full of phrases and sentences and paragraphs describing
every idea I’ve ever had that’s made my brain tingle in that particular way.
Moving quickly, before the idea dies, I find a blank space in the document and
write it down. I usually don’t write more than a sentence; for my book Magic
Marks the Spot, I wrote, “A girl tries to enroll in Piracy but her
application is forwarded to Young Ladies’ Finishing School.”

Then, once the idea is safely recorded, I
forget about it for a very long time.

I think this is the most important part of
my process. The idea needs time by itself to ripen, and if I hover over it and
poke at it too much, it won’t develop properly. I let the idea sit in my
subconscious mind, soaking up everything I read and learn about and experience
in the meantime, and every so often I’ll realize that the idea has grown a new
sort of tendril (“the pirate girl has an adorable sidekick… maybe a talking
parrot? A talking rabbit? A talking… something else?”). I write that tendril
down in my story idea file and go back to not thinking about it for a while.
Though it’s not always possible, I prefer to let a good story idea ripen for at
least a year while I write about something entirely different. I had the idea
for Magic Marks the Spot about a year before I started writing the first
draft. The idea for my second book was only allowed to ripen for eight months
(I was on deadline), and it was still a little green around the edges. And I
have another idea that’s going on two years of ripening now, though I haven’t
yet started to write it.

An idea is ready to be written about when I
know a few crucial things about it. First, I have to know the thing that wonderful
children’s fantasy author Diana Wynne Jones describes in her book Reflections as “the taste, quality,
character—there are no words for it—nature of the book itself, a sort of flavor.”
This flavor could be the subject of its own blog post, but it usually arrives
at the moment of inspiration and grows stronger during the ripening period.
Next, I have to know how the story begins. I like to know exactly what happens
for at least the first twenty pages, since once I’ve written that down I am
firmly in the story, and I’ve given myself enough momentum to keep going. I
also need to have some idea of what the story’s climactic scene will be, so I
know what I’m aiming for. I will usually know two or three scenes that take
place along the way, though that’s not absolutely crucial; they will have
popped up during the ripening process, and they may be subject to change if the
story takes twists and turns I don’t expect.

Finally, I need to plan out how my heroine
will change and grow emotionally over the course of the book. I’m the sort of
writer who gets so caught up in plot that I forget to let my characters feel
things, so I plan this emotional arc very consciously and deliberately; if I
don’t, I will utterly fail to include it in the story.

After that, I start writing. I’m a planner
by nature, and I usually make an outline about halfway through the first draft,
when I have a pretty good idea of how the rest of the book will go, but I don’t
require myself to stick to it. Not knowing what will happen next may be
terrifying, but the scenes that come out of nowhere, unplanned, always turn out
to be my favorites.

And that, in exhausting detail, is how I’ve
planned the stories I’ve written so far, though I can’t guarantee it’s how I’ll
write the next one.

Thanks for giving us such a detailed insight into your story planning Caroline. I'm forever fascinated how every writer uses different approaches. Just goes to show there is no 'right' way in writing!

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Essential Review Policy Information

Currently not accepting books for review until April 2018

This review policy change is due to winter being my worst time of year health wise, and it's just easier to put a suspension on accepting new reviews until I know I will be able to do them. Click on this link to see the full explanation

Exceptions are if you are an author I really like/or are a picture book!You will know who you are. If you don't mind a wait, do email me to see if I'll make an exception - I may depending on the book.

I accept books, ebooks, + audiobooks frompublishers, publicists, and authors. I also accept independently published books.

Other review items I'm happy to consider:jigsaw puzzles, apps for both android and iPad, candles, yarn, and chocolate.

Hi, I'm Nayu!

About me

About me I'm a UK book reviewer who founded NRC in 2009. As well as books I'm addicted to anime, love gaming, and spend time coaxing novels out of my Muse. I'm at the early stage of the path to publication, and will release all news when I have it! ^o^ Sometimes there will be days without posts because I have to deal with chronic illness and chronic pain gremlins. Please be patient in the down times.

Thanks to my passion for languages I like to rest up watching anime in English, French, and Japanese. I also adore gaming and cross stitch. My crochet hobby has evolved in to my Etsy store and blog Nayu's Crochet Dreams, where I sell handmade blankets, dishcloths and other crochet goods.

My cat Belle loves curling on my lap when I read, although she gets a bit crabby when I crochet because she doesn't like the yarn draping over her. Needless to say she doesn't get a say in the matter!

I hope you enjoy Nayu's Reading Corner, which has lots to offer whatever you're interested in.

short 'n' sweet= a shorter than normal review for when I'm low on energy/ill. Full reason is in this post. It bears no reflection on the book's brilliance. I truly would write more if I could.

Apart from books, which are copyright to the publisher, and pictures which I say are mine, all other pictures are found online through a Google search. I don't own the right to any of them.

Affiliates:I'm in the slow process of removing affiliate links. All affilate links will be marked as such, and if you choose to buy a book through an affiliate I get a tiny smidge of money. None of my opinions change because I'm using affiliates.

Nayu, 13th March 2017

Disclaimer

I am fortunate that most of the books I currently review are received from authors and publishers.

At the beginning of each review I put either Review copy (received from authors/publishers), Personal Copy (purchased by myself) or Library Copy (borrowed from the library).

Wherever the book comes from, I always write an honest review, explaining what I do like, as well as what I don't. I don't receive any payment for these reviews.